Same thing, different place 1
by SirusLivesOn
Summary: A snippet of Rodney and John whilst on another mission to a barelyindustrial planet. Not JohnRodney or McShep though, just friendship


**Title:** Same thing, different place Part 1  
**Fandom:** Stargate: Atlantis (SGA)  
**Prompt:** #76 - Mt. Everest (for tamingthemuse livejournal)  
**Word Count:** 2,236 at the last count :)  
**Warnings:** None, I think. Set anytime from early season 2 onwards really.  
**Rating:** PG-13 (12A for UK people), or somewhere around there. Better safe than sorry though.  
**Summary:** A snippet of Rodney and John whilst on another mission to a barely-industiral planet.  
**Disclaimer:** I neither own the characters nor enough money to pay a law suit, so please, don't sue me. I'm just using the characters for fun and am in no way shape or form making money from this piece of fan written fiction. All credit should go to their creators and respective owners.  
**Authors Notes: **Written for tamingthemuse livejournal and beta'd by the lovely and ever-so-helpful weaselett love ya hun :D and thismaz. Thanks so much you guys hugs Without thismaz there would have been waaay more paragraphs than was needed, as well as many other nasty little things, and without weaselett Rodney would be a poor Daniel Jackson and John would have turned into Jack O'Neill. Oi vey!  
**Authors Notes #2:** I _think_ this fic'll only be 2 parts, but it could spill into 3. Just thought I should give you a heads up on that :)  
**Authors Notes #3:** As an aside, I haven't seen any SGA since s3 ended. Not a single darned episode!

"Look, climbing Mount Everest, in winter, naked, and with only enough supplies to keep a cat happy for a day or two, would be easier than what you're asking of me, so just leave me alone. I'll radio my team mates when I've got something remotely useful and they can bring you along. Now leave me alone!" Rodney didn't look out from under the piece of native technology that he was working on when he heard someone enter, assuming it to be the leader of the local people or one of his grunts. "And whilst I realise that you don't know what or even where Mount Everest is, you must realise that expecting me to have finished inspecting all of these…these…neglected, rust-ridden heaps of metal that you call processors in the minute amount of time that I've had down here so far is completely and utterly absurd!" continued Rodney, who was still moving around under the second processor from the doorway.

Before he could continue with his rant about the state of what he'd hoped to be useful technology (but in reality was nothing more helpful than a set of flashing lights in a fancy case) and start in on just what he thought of the conditions he was expected to work in, the person in the doorway stepped into Rodney's line of sight. It was Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, team leader and friend to the irate scientist under the processor.

"It's me McKay, not Leader Kasanowicz," John drawled, "so you stop the babbling right now." He smirked at the incredulous expression on Rodney's face. "I was just coming by to tell you that the Council of Grouten…Graten…Grand-High muckity mucks or whatever it is they call themselves, have invited us to stay for dinner and Elizabeth's already agreed to it. Said it'd be a great diplomatic event or some stuff like that."

As John had been talking, Rodney had stood up from his previous position of lying flat on his back half hidden by the so-called processor, and wiped himself down, somewhat unsuccessfully.

Turning to face John whilst unconsciously checking his own body for the standard issue side-arm and the knife that Ronon had given him after the last mission that he had been captured on, Rodney went from incredulous to exasperated with a side-order of stressed.

"Elizabeth agreed to it when I haven't even determined if they've got anything of any use to us whatsoever? I mean, what's the point of going through the niceties if we're not going to get anything from it?" Getting back in to the swing of a rant, Rodney's arms began windmill-ing and his face regained the colour of a plump tomato whilst he started to pace the small dank storage room. "What's to say they don't lace their food with citrus-enhanced sauces or dressings huh? I could die from her need to play nice with yet another bunch of barely evolved Neanderthals! Not that anyone even knows what they cook here. Oh - what if they're vegetarians? Or even worse, vegans! What if their special dish is the Pegasus version of Tofu?? I'm going to have serious words with her when we get back!" Rodney continued his tirade about the merits or lacks there of, of non Earth-based meals and his numerous medical conditions whilst John just shook his head and let his team-mate finish his tirade. He knew better than to try and stop the blue-eyed genius when he'd reached this level of stressed.

It was obvious to John that something had either annoyed or upset Rodney in order to warrant an extensive rant. Also, said subject wasn't just the fact that they'd been politely ordered by their leader, Dr. Elizabeth Weir, to stay an extra 8 hours than they had originally been scheduled for so that they could shmooze with the local leaders. Most other people would probably have thought that Rodney was just being prissy and childish because he hadn't been included in the discussion to stay late, but over the course of the past year or so, John had learned to read Rodney better than that. One way or another, John was going to get to the bottom of this, because that's what friends do, right?

Rodney was getting near the end of his extended outburst and was slowing his pace down when John remembered something that Rodney had said earlier when he'd thought that it was Leader Kasanowicz that had come down to speak to him instead of John.

"…_would be easier than what you're asking of me…"_

Stilling his windmill-ing arms and coming to a complete standstill whilst looking over at his friend, Rodney quickly realised that John wasn't concentrating on him and was probably thinking of the best way to do the Pegasus equivalent of getting the phone number of one of the Council members' daughters. Most likely that cute little red-head that had been looking at John as if he was all of her dreams wrapped up in one spiky-haired package. Sighing, he went about getting Johns' attention back on the here and now.

"John? JOHN! Haven't you listened to a word I've said in the last" Rodney quickly checked his watch "eight minutes?"

"Y'know me, once you'd got to the _"nobody understands what it's like to be me"_ portion of your rant my brain just kinda tuned you out. Sorry 'bout that, but, I mean, you always get that into an extended tirade and I had something else to think on other than your ranting and raving," John teased, his face open and smiling, taking the sting out of the otherwise harsh words. However, before Rodney could get indignant John took a deep breath in order to get his thoughts in line and began talking about what he'd really been thinking on over the last few minutes. "Actually, I was thinking about something you said earlier when you thought it wasn't me down here." Switching from the jovial John Sheppard that he was most of the time, he became the serious and concerned Lt. Colonel and team-mate. "You said that something, 'would be easier than what you're asking of me', and I was thinking about what you could've meant by that. All I've got that makes any kinda sense, is that someone here in Desot'ala is forcing you to do something you don't want to do but you feel that you have to for some reason; possibly to stop something worse happening?" John asked calmly, watching his friends' face for any clues as to what was really going on.

He really hated it when people gave Rodney a hard time; especially off-world, as he didn't have the experience or training that Ronon, Teyla and John himself did in dealing with potentially life-threatening situations. Granted, Rodney had come through some pretty horrific off-world incidents in the last year or so, but he hadn't had to deal with them on his own.

"It's probably someone in this facility or one of the Council members, someone that's had more than a minute alone with you." He mused. "Feel free to step in and set me straight anytime you like Rodney." John paused, waiting to see if Rodney would say anything, give him a clue as to what had happened or tell him to mind his own business, anything.

Whilst John had been talking, Rodney had been doing everything but look at him. Currently, the grimy rust-ridden metal of the nearest processor was the object of the astrophysicist's intense scrutiny, and it didn't appear to be giving up any and all secrets that it may or may not hold to him. Slowly, Rodney began walking over towards the door of the storage room, looking over the walls in a vague attempt to check for any writing that may be of help to them under all of the grease and mould that was present in disgustingly large quantities.

After waiting almost five minutes for Rodney to say something, anything, to him after his slow wander around the room, John was about to walk over to Rodney and demand that he answer - patience was not one of Johns' strongest traits, especially when one of his friends was potentially in trouble - when Rodney turned to him and started speaking.

"Since I've been down here, I've carefully looked the place over for technology that's more advanced than what we've already seen and I haven't found anything that would pass for out of the ordinary here, but better safe than sorry, right?" Looking John in the eye for the first time since being told that they'd be staying for dinner, he tried to convey how serious he was and that no, he wasn't being overly paranoid like he sometimes was. "I'm virtually certain that they don't have any technology better than the tools and weapons that we saw walking through the town earlier, but we've been tricked like that before, and well, I'd _really_ like to get out of this without making yet more enemies, but we can't be too sure right?"

"Uh huh" was all John could say before Rodney got going again.

"So, I might have said a few things about how their technological level was rather below ours and that I shouldn't be bothered with looking over their obviously misunderstood relics and that I've got a hundred other things I could and should be doing back home and that I was being wasted on these stupid meet and greet missions when I could be working on much more useful things that befit my being the Head of the Science Department back on Atlantis. And" It was at this point that Rodney, king of the long and extended rambling rant, began to look slightly nervous and a little uncertain of himself, when John was expecting a rather angry or annoyed Rodney to be in front of him.

"Leader Kasanowicz and a couple of his grunts took offence to my comments and, well, they implied rather a few things that weren't the sort of thing you'd expect to come out of the mouth of a leader of a supposedly peaceful town." By the end of his partial explanations, Rodney had reverted to not looking at John at all. Instead of looking around the room like he had before, he was looking at his hands which were restlessly turning over and over a small tool that he'd been using when John had walked in earlier.

Sighing in anticipation of another mission that in all likeliness would be filed FUBAR in his head, John moved over to Rodney's left side in companionship as this had to be worse than McKay was letting on because when Rodney McKay, genius extraordinaire, feels that he's being threatened, he doesn't avoid eye contact. Rather the opposite in fact.

"Y'know you really shouldn't have said those things, right? Weir's given up telling you that, and I can't count the number of times Teyla's mentioned that you should be a bit politer to people you don't know, especially as she just glares at you now instead."

"Yes, thank you for once again, pointing out the obvious, Colonel." Rodney replied with some of his usual snark evident.

"Yeah, well," taking another calming breath before pushing ahead again, John continued "You gonna tell me then, Rodney?"

"Tell you what?" Rodney asked, trying to look innocent but failing miserably.

"The odds of us getting outta here sometime this side of the movie night back at Atlantis, McKay," snarked John, sarcasm coming to the fore for a minute. "What the Leader said to you that's turning you into a pale and shy version of my friend, Rodney."

"Oh, right, that. Well…" looking at his watch and trying to remember just what time it had been when he was left alone down here in this grimy basement storage room and calculating how long he had until someone, hopefully not Leader Kasanowicz, came to find him, Rodney decided that he had enough time to tell John everything before anyone would come down looking for him or John, or both of them.

"Are you sure there's no hidden technology in this room? I know I looked around and couldn't find anything, but this is a military owned building, so you might be able to find something I missed, though that's not too likely. Whilst they're nowhere near as safety cautious as most branches of the military on Earth, you might find something I didn't."

"Don't try and weasel your way outta this Rodney. I need to know if someone or something is compromising my team and I need you to tell me now!" John ground out from between clenched teeth. He was trying to be patient, but damnit! If his friend was being coerced into something he had to stop it, and sooner rather than later.

"Are you sure though?" Rodney repeated.

Taking a cursory look around the room in all the usual places to plant a bug and checking a few of the slightly more unusual places that could hide less-than-friendly technology, John clarified that he didn't think there was anything untoward in the room and told Rodney that if he didn't tell him what had gone on right now, it wouldn't be pretty.

"I guess you'll want to know everything from the beginning then." Rodney said, resigned to telling the entire sorry tale to his friend and team leader.


End file.
